By all accounts September 11, 2001 started out as a typical Tuesday. Most Americans were simply going about their daily lives -- children were headed to school, folks were commuting to work. But all of that changed in an instant. At 8:46 that morning the first hijacked airplane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. And in that moment life for all Americans was forever changed.

President Obama has lately had either bad publicity or watched on the sidelines as most of the media’s attention has been on Republican candidates for his job.

But all that changed with his Sept. 8 speech to a Joint Session of Congress. The president laid out his plan for a $447 billion jobs program that would put people back to work on the nation’s infrastructure of roads and bridges.

I know that the state has to watch its budget with the economy as it is these days. This is especially true with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). That is why it was very puzzling when I saw the repaving being done on eastbound US 460 around Bedford. It is not that it wasn’t needed, but the timing of it being done.

This past week on our Route 58 Tour, we traveled across the 5th District making over 40 stops from Stanleytown to Martinsville, Brosville, Danville, Ringgold, South Boston, Clarksville, Boydton, South Hill, La Crosse, Ebony, and Lawrenceville.